Swine flu

A 22 year old girl who returned from Chicago to Osijek, in the far East of Croatia, was suspected of having swine flu. In a special press conference, Health minister Darko Milinović told the girl was being kept in isolation and monitored. Večernji list put a picture of the girl online, with a bar over her eyes as if she is some kind of criminal.
A day later we know that the girl is not infected with swine flu. Actually, she doesn't even have "normal" flu. She recovered from swine flu in a day, but I wonder how much time she needs to recover from the stigma.
Croats are generally quickly worried about their health, except when it come to food (too much meat, salt and fat, too little vegetables). We are being told not too panic, but at the same time the head of the Epidemiology Office says that we should "immediately contact a doctor" if we have symptoms of influenza such as "pain, headache and exhaustion" and the body temperature is above 38 degrees. During the weekend we should go to the hospital.
And everybody is wondering why Croats are massively on sick leave. In Gospić, a small town in the Lika region, the average every worker is on sick leave for two weeks per year. Daily almost 60.000 people don't show up at work. That's a huge number on a total of 1,5 million employed people.
It's quite easy to spot a swines in Croatia. I saw this one in Lonsko Polje, a nature reservation area south of the highway to Belgrade.

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